Louisa Fitzhardinge talks nerding out on grammar and her favourite words interview

Polyglottal language nerd Louisa Fitzhardinge makes grammar sexy in her show Comma Sutra: a musical comedy romp for everyone "smitten by the written".

Five words to describe Comma Sutra?

Nerdy, silly, multilingual, award-nominated, pun-sodden.

Top five favourite words in the English language EVER (and why)?

Perspicacious. I first came across this word in a Tim Minchin song and have loved it ever since. It means 'insightful' but it's far more fun to say.

Yeet. This may be rather divisive, but I love that new words are continually making their way into our lexicon. For the not-so-internet-savvy, 'yeet' is a word you can say when you throw something to give your throw a bit of extra panache, but it can also be used as a verb (as in, 'Yeet me that ball'). Hasn't the English language yearned for a word that's the opposite of 'yoink' for some time now?

Any Australian word with 'o', 'ie', 'y' or 'a' on the end. We shorten absolutely everything, and it's glorious. There's nothing more delightfully Aussie than a cuppa and a choccie biccie in the arvo while you watch the footy with your mate Davo.

Wee! This is by far the cutest way to say 'small', and am very much looking forward to hearing it everywhere when I'm in Edinburgh.

And, while it's not in the English language, I have to mention the glorious German compound noun 'Kummerspeck': the extra cushion of weight one gains after going through an emotional experience, such as a breakup. It literally translates as 'grief bacon'.

Punctuation isn't always seen as the sexiest of subjects - what is it that turns you on about grammar so much?

I think there's something inherently sexy about meeting someone who uses language well. I know we'll be able to bond over beautiful words, debate the merits of Oxford commas, and snuggle up together watching the ever-loquacious Stephen Fry on telly.

One of the songs in my show is called Grammar Makes Me Hot, and I believe it's the first love song about grammar to be released. What a travesty! We need more songs about how hot it is when someone uses the word 'literally' correctly, please!

We hear that English has TWELVE tenses, but we can only count three - can you explain what that's about? Asking for a friend.

Oh, absolutely. There are the simple past, present and future, then the three progressive tenses (sadly eschewed by certain world leaders, am I right?), the three perfect simple tenses, and the three perfect progressive tenses.

Of course, there's one bonus tense: the 'I'm singlehandedly bringing a comedy show to Edinburgh Fringe' tense, which is just about as tense as anyone can get.

Ha ha. Do you have any other 'uncool' hobbies or habits we should know about?

Anything involving words really gets me going. I love a good crossword, although I'm still a relative rookie at cryptics. I'm a boardgame fanatic, especially backgammon. Oh, and I recently drove for seven hours to get to a national pun competition and indulge my love of making up terrible jokes on the spot. It was worth it. I came away with the title, and my trophy was a plastic dinosaur wearing a bonnet named 'Emily Brontësaurus'.